But within a quarter-of-an-hour the Blues hit the back of the net. Captain Michael Ballack put in a inch-perfect left-wing cross deep into the Bolton area and Kalou rose unchallenged to power home a fierce header past Al Habsi.

A minute later and Bolton could have been level but Hilario dived at the feet of the in-rushing Taylor and the midfielder's shot smashed off the face of the keeper.

The Chelsea goalkeeper collapsed to the ground seconds later - seemingly a result of the injury and was replaced by Ross Turnbull for his debut.

Hilario was taken straight away to the local hospital for a scan on his head.

It was the Blues who struck again on 26 minutes, Frenchman Malouda tucking home an easy left-foot shot from five yards out after his first shot had deflected off defender Zat Knight.

Kalou almost hit his second on 39 minutes when Malouda set the Ivory Coast hit-man free, but his left-foot shot from just inside the Bolton area was parried away to safety by the goalkeeper

Turnbull's first piece of action came on 54 minutes when he snuffed out Mark Davies' daisy-cutter of a drive.

A sharp counter-attack from the home side two minutes later saw Cole slide the ball to striker Daniel Sturridge but the young striker fluffed his big moment, sending the ball wide of the Bolton goal.

Seconds later he just missed another golden chance to open his account but sent a low left-footed drive wide of the Bolton goal.

The 20-year-old lasted two more minutes before being subbed for Drogba.

Bolton failed to learn from the previous goal and, on 67 minutes, another quick counter-attack saw Deco get the ball off Cole and arrow a low right footer past a prone Al Habsi from just inside the Bolton penalty area.

The visitors did hit the Chelsea post with four minutes remaining through Ivan Klasnic and the ball was cleared to safety.